I’ve always felt the word ‘Festival’ was, in relation to music, reserved to describe anything that involved camping, over priced food and drink, and wellies. The idea of calling a musical event that only takes place over 12 hours, let alone one that takes place at a South London venue, a ‘Festival’ seemed like a bit of a joke.
Then I went to the Brainlove Records Festival. And it was brilliant. 20 bands, two ’stages’ (indoor and outside in the sunshine), a FREE BBQ, decently priced booze and not a pair of wellies in sight and they managed to capture all the atmosphere of a three day festival and distill it into half a day.
Highlights included A Scholar and A Physician who started with a song that sounded like the intro to Look Around You and didn’t stop smiling till they’d finished their brilliant electronic pop set and gwEm and Counter Reset who played a set that ran through metal, punk, rave, hip hop and RnB. Confused? I was. But it was brilliant.
If you missed out this year I recommend finding Brainlove Records on myspace and going along to the Woolfire festival where they have a heavy presence.
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